Banana Bread report - a flat disappointment

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Banana Bread report - a flat disappointment

Well, I followed the Epicurious banana bread recipe almost to a T, and I was so disappointed! Oh it tasted good and people liked it (or were just polite), but I was really hoping for a nice rise & domed top, and it rose maybe 2 mm at most. I even slashed the top after it had just set as one poster suggested, but all that did was give me banana bread with a slash down the middle. I think people liked it only because of how much butter and chocolate it had, and maybe also how ripe the bananas were.

And the lemon juice didn't seem to make any difference, in rise nor in taste.

The things I did different:

I used 1/2 cup sugar instead of 1 cup. 1 cup just seemed like overkill, and my bananas were plenty ripe. The end product was actually a tad too sweet for my taste, but people thought it was sweet enough.

I didn't bother tossing the choc chips & nuts in the flour mixture; I've never had a prob of them sinking and didn't here (though the bread is so FLAT there really wouldn't have been any difference if they had sunk!)

It went against all my instinct to read "beat in flour mixture", so I folded/gently mixed it in instead of beating it in.

I didn't bother "layering" the batter with the chips/nuts. I simply folded them in when the flour mixture was almost all mixed in.

After pouring into the pan I pressed some nuts almost all the way into the top. I always do this for better presentation.

Also, my convection oven is way too efficient. I set the timer at 45 minutes to check it, and it was on the verge of overdone (in the 2nd photo, note the dark coloring of the insides of the bread's bottom corners).

Oh, and I made more of my usual high-fiber banana muffins. That's the 3rd photo below. Note the high concentration of 70% cocoa "TJ's Pound Plus" (more than usual).

So...I guess I'll have to simply try another recipe among the ones posted. Stay tuned. In the meantime, if you have any tips or recipe for a banana bread with a high dome top, please post.